


In A Flash

by MichaelMell (GalacticTwink)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, F/M, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Helmsman Sollux, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Prompt Fic, Sadstuck, Self-Hatred, Self-Sacrifice, pale solkat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 10:58:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8621926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticTwink/pseuds/MichaelMell
Summary: Sollux is the only way they'll be able to go on, but his body isn't strong enough to survive helming the ship they're using. He has no arguments with the idea, and it's their only option. He has something to die for, it's going to mean something. But did his life?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Angst challenge #1 "aren't you going to say anything?" With Arasol

    "Don't sweat it, I can handle it. Just hook me up.” Sollux turns around, taking off his glasses and looking up at the harness he's getting ready to accept. It's a little worse for wear, but if the ship can still run then the helm should work.   
    “Sollux, are you sure? We can find another way if you don't want to go through with this.” Karkat turns him back around, holding him by the wrist to keep eye contact with the taller troll without him moving away again.   
    “Kk, this is our only option and I'm the only one who can do it. If I don't, just because I'm ‘not sure’ we could all fucking die and it would be my damn fault. I'm doing this for you guys. Not like you needed me for anything anyway, right?” He laughs, smile dropping at the look on his friend's face.   
    “I'm sure, kk. Really. Don't make it harder.” Sollux turns around, tugging his shirt up over his head and folding it up messily just in case he can put it on again when they get to their destination. He doesn't take pleasure in stripping in front of his friend, whose eyes rake over Sollux’s wiry frame with concern shining in his golden orbs. Karkat’s fingers shake, tracing across exposed ribs gently as though he expects the psionic in front of him to break if he pushes too hard. His eyes lock across the room when the door opens, Aradia hovering at the threshold and not showing signs that she's decided to actually come inside.   
    “Okay, so I did fine some… Here.” Karkat finds a jar of mind honey in his sylladex, a spoon falling into his hands along with it which he offers to Sollux along with the glass container.   
    “String me up first. I don't want to hurt you.” A nod comes in response, the honey set aside so the mutant’s still quivering hands can help Sollux step up onto a platform they set up for the shorter than intended psionic to take the helm.   
    “Alright, I'm not sure…” Karkat steps up as well, touching the tendrils that make up the harness he's to be putting on his friend.   
    “I'd go with wrists first so you can get to the rest of me. This shit connects me to the ship’s systems and keeps my body in place while it's being used. You're not gonna hurt me asshole, just get it over with so we can get the fuck out of here already.” Karkat steadys his hands, pulling the tentacle like fiber-optics to wrap around Sollux’s wrists and around his arms for them to settle on their own while he wraps the longer more important looking ones around his friend.   
    "Did I get your grubscars?” He pauses, watching Sollux start to squirm uncomfortably when a few of them were up around him.   
    “Yeah, just a little bit.” He nods, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to stop moving so Karkat can peel that tendril off the sensitive spot and put it back just below his bottom grubscar to avoid anything getting weird down there. Sparks jump from the cable when it's peeled from Sollux’s skin, shocking Karkat in the process and making him recoil.   
    “Shit, are you sure that's not hurting you?” Red rises to the surface of Karkat’s skin, not bleeding but leaving a harsh burn there on his hand.   
    “Fuck no, I never said it didn't hurt kk; I'm dying here. Probably literally so get a damn move on before you don't have a psionic to fly this piece of shit we're calling a ship.” The mutant looks conflicted, hooking Sollux up much more carefully now though it doesn't make much of a difference.   
    “Fuck, be careful down there! My bulges are nice, I'd appreciate if you didn't zap them off.” He doesn't get a snappy comeback, instead gentle hands cover said bulges to get them out of the way before releasing them again.   
    “Don't touch them you asshole! I'm gonna fucking die with a boner now and it's your fault.” Karkat snorts, ignoring Sollux’s comment so he can step off of the platform and pull it out from under his moirail to let the remainder of the tentacles settle and attach to his legs on their own.   
    “Well fuck, should I say goodbye before we do this?” The mutant looks down at the honey he has ready, then at Sollux again like he doesn't want to give it to him at all.   
    "I'd be devastated if you didn't; what a moirail, not giving your palemate a send off befit he dies in a blast of his own power and inability to control it enough to be useful.” The psionic sighs harshly, laughing at his own insult to himself and possibly his being as a whole.   
    “Life’s a joke anyway, isn't it? Looks like I finally got to the punchline. About damn time, it was starting to drag on.” Karkat reaches up to touch Sollux, laying his open palm on his moirail’s chest.   
    “You… you were a light in my snivelling worthless life, and you helped me get shit together when it fell out of place. You were amazing, and such a passionate moirail and I'm sure an even better matesprit to Aradia, who you made very happy. I pitied you in the palest of ways and I'll never be able to find another moirail that could take care of my self deprecating ass even if I tried. When you're gone my bloodpusher is going to wish that you're still here.” Sollux doesn't say anything immediately, looking down as much as he can to try and get a good look at his moirail. Karkat feels liquid dripping down onto him, gold tinted tears streaming down the same coloured troll's face.   
    “I didn't know you cared that much kk.” The pair falls silent, tears still falling from Sollux’s face and dripping to the ground below him. The pause is interrupted by a choked sob, moisture glistening on Karkat’s face when he looks up again.   
    "Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't want to cry like a damn wriggler.”  
    “I'm so fucking pale for you kk.” Karkat picks up the jar of honey, unscrewing the lid and dipping the spoon in to get a generous spoonful. He's hesitating, letting the golden syrup drip from the underside of the spoon while he looks at Sollux.   
    "I can't do it. I'm going to get the systems online.” Aradia has to step to the side so Karkat can open the door, looking around at his moirail again at the frame.   
    "Hey, I'll see you later kk. In the bubbles, right?” The psionic is left with his matesprit, who has yet to get any closer to Sollux until this point when she's forced to. She takes the honey, stirring the spoon inside the jar for a moment before filling it with the liquid and holding it up. Her eyes are blank and dead inside, lips curled down into a neutral expression.   
   “Aa? Aren't you going to say something? No ‘I pity you’, no ‘I'll miss you’, no anything? I'm about to die, don't you give a shit?”   
    “Sollux, please-” she tries to get him to just take the honey, making him spark at the temples.  
    “No, aa, I won't please. I don't want you to cry, or try to talk me down. I don't want you to beg me not to; I know that's not your style. But Aradia, I want you to say something. Anything. Do you want me to die? There probably won't be a corpse for you to play with if that's what you want after all this. Do you love death so fucking much that it doesn't matter if I die?” Aradia doesn't lower the spoon, but looks up at her matesprite with tears pricking at her eyes. Her voice cracks when she speaks up, quivering with the strain of holding back tears.  
    “I don't want you to die, Sollux, but what difference will any of that make? If you're going to go anyway, why say anything that will make me feel worse?” Sollux accepts her spoon of honey this time, swallowing the sweet syrup and letting it coat the inside of his mouth and throat on the way down.   
    “I guess I just though you'd want me to know I lived for something. That you'd miss me, and they you pitied me. I pity you, aa. I'm so red for you my bloodpusher can't take it. Glad to know you return the sentiment.”   
    “Sollux, I-”  
    “Get out, aa. Kk will start me up soon and I don't want to hurt you. Just go.” He's sparking, drawing a sigh from Aradia’s lips as she leaves the room; shutting the door behind her.   
    "I pitied you.” Tears slide down her cheeks, bicoloured light flooding into the hall from under the door shortly accompanied by screams. The ship jerks to a start, time ticking on as she walks away from the flashing lightshow behind her. It'll be over soon. 


End file.
